A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



lungs. The great physiologist's influence upon prac- 

 tical medicine, while most profound, was largely in- 

 direct. He was a theoretical rather than a practical 

 physician, yet he is credited with being the first phy- 

 sician to use the watch in counting the pulse. 



BATTISTA MORGAGNI AND MORBID ANATOMY 



A great contemporary of Haller was Giovanni Battista 

 Morgagni (1682-1771), who pursued what Sydenham 

 had neglected, the investigation in anatomy, thus sup- 

 plying a necessary counterpart to the great English- 

 man's work. Morgagni's investigations were directed 

 chiefly to the study of morbid anatomy the study of 

 the structure of diseased tissue, both during life and 

 post mortem, in contrast to the normal anatomical 

 structures. This work cannot be said to have origi- 

 nated with him; for as early as 1679 Bonnet had made 

 similar, although less extensive, studies; and later 

 many investigators, such as Lancisi and Haller, had 

 made post-mortem studies. But Morgagni's De sedibus 

 et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis was the 

 largest, most accurate, and best-illustrated collection 

 of cases that had ever been brought together, and 

 marks an epoch in medical science. From the time 

 of the publication of Morgagni's researches, morbid 

 anatomy became a recognized branch of the medical 

 science, and the effect of the impetus thus given it has 

 been steadily increasing since that time. 



WILLIAM HUNTER 



William Hunter (1718-1783) must always be re- 

 membered as one of the greatest physicians and anato- 



